BA Ancient History and Archaeology

Compulsory modules

Archaeology Today: Methods and Practice

Uncover the main methods and practices currently employed in modern archaeology, both in archaeological fieldwork and post-excavation analysis. You’ll gain essential knowledge on the variety of techniques used in modern archaeology and an understanding of current practice in the UK.

Early Empires: Mesopotamia, Egypt and Rome

Discover the archaeology of the world’s early empires, dating from 2500BC to AD395, focusing on the great empires of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Persian Achaemenid Empire, and the Roman Empire. You’ll examine ideology, imperial cult, trade, urbanisation, warfare, agriculture and the everyday lives of imperial subjects, as you study the rise and fall of some of the greatest, most feared, socio-political entities to have existed. 

Greek History: War, Society and Change in the Archaic Age

Track the upheavals, innovations, and conflicts across ancient Greece and beyond. Using evidence, you’ll reconstruct the events and practices that are subject to ongoing debate.  

Roman History: The Rise and Fall of the Republic

Investigate a period marked by profound socio-political changes in Rome and discover the evidence for ancient history and modern methodological approaches, considering the relevance of Roman antiquity to issues in the modern world.

Optional modules

Forensic Anthropology and the Archaeology of Death

Learn the archaeological methods and theories employed in the scientific study of the dead, both from the modern forensic and older archaeological contexts. Gain insight into how humans have buried their dead over the time, analyse skeletal remains, and conduct fieldwork in a cemetery survey.  

Contemporary World Cultures: An Introduction to Social Anthropology

Gain a general introduction to social anthropology – the study of human societies and cultures. You’ll explore key themes in the discipline through the study of topics including kingship and marriage, gender and sexuality, the role of religion, ritual and witchcraft in social life, and contemporary hunting and gathering societies.  

Ancient Song

Discover a range of lyric poetry from ancient Greece and Rome and consider a range of thematic approaches to reading the surviving texts. 

The Past in the Present

Understand the value of materials and how they contribute to our knowledge of antiquity. You’ll learn how to handle and conserve objects and how museums encourage audiences to engage with the ancient world.

Presenting the Past: An Introduction to Museum Studies

Examine how contemporary museum practice contributes to social challenges. Visits to museums, case studies and theory will help you to consider the origins of museums along with how information is collected and presented to different audiences. 

Optional Language or University Wide Modules

Study a module from outside your Department to enhance your understanding of history and culture. Alternatively, you can learn one of ten languages offered by the University at a level appropriate for you. 

These are the modules we typically offer at this level of study. If you have any questions about specific modules, please email the Archaeology Admissions Tutor at archaeology@reading.ac.uk.

Please note that the University cannot guarantee that all optional modules will be available to all students who may wish to take them.

You can also register your details with us to receive information about your course of interest and study and life at the University of Reading.

Compulsory modules

There is more module choice in Year 2, although you have to take a minimum number of certain types of modules (e.g. one 'period' module in Archaeology, and one 'professional development' module). For further details, see the list of options below or please contact the Archaeology Admissions Tutor. 

Optional modules

Archaeology and Heritage: Past, Present and Future

Discover how and why archaeologists have excavated and interpreted the material remains of past societies over time. You’ll examine interpretations of the past through to the modern day, spanning the ancient Near East and Classical Greece and Rome. You’ll also examine the evolution of ideas, considering how wider society has changed archaeology and how it may continue to develop in the future. 

Ancient Objects: Materials and Meanings 

Learn the skills, techniques and interpretative frameworks specific to the study of artefacts, including how they’re recorded, analysed and interpreted. You'll be exposed to a wide range of artefacts covering two chronological periods as you explore methodological aspects and analyse data for your dissertation.  

Prehistoric Europe: The First Million Years

Uncover Europe’s pre-history, from the earliest Palaeolithic through to the Iron Age c. 1,600,000 – 800 BC), from Turkey and the Balkans to Britain, Ireland and Scandinavia. You’ll consider important research questions and themes such as technology, dietary strategies, life histories, hominin cognitive abilities, settlement and burial archaeology, ritual practice, and comparative anthropology.  

Archaeology Field School and Professional Practice

Gain a practical, hands-on introduction to field techniques and site recording methods used on both urban and rural excavations. You’ll spend four weeks on a departmental excavation and participate in site work including excavation, finds and sample processing, geophysics, survey and aspects, and geoarchaeology.  

Bioarchaeology

Learn the key methods employed in the examination of human and animal skeletal remains from archaeological sites, and utilise skeletal collections held by the Department of Archaeology. You’ll uncover the role of the osteoarchaeologist, and learn how to identify, record and analyse human and non-human remains.

Changing the Face of the Earth: Past, Present and Future Sustainability

Examine how archaeology, environmental science and anthropology can provide a deep-time perspective on global challenges and sustainability and how they may contribute to future solutions. You’ll explore the historical emergence, sustainability, and collapse of communities and civilisations, alongside the role of humans in changing climate and ecosystems in the future.

Summer Placement

Take the opportunity to complete a research or professional placement during the summer vacation preceding Part 2 or Part 3 of your degree. You can work alongside a member of staff on a current project based in the UK or internationally, or with a professional organisation, consultancy or government organisation. 

Ancient Epic

Discuss interpretations of Greek and Latin epic hexameter poetry such as the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid.  

Greek History: Persian Wars to Alexander

Discover the Greek classical age (479-323 BC), how to interact with sources, and principles and methods central to the study of ancient history. 

Greek Sculpture and Architecture

Gain knowledge of sculpture and architecture in the Greek world, from its beginnings to the end of the Hellenistic period and consider how, why, where and when these media developed. 

My Mother's Sins and Other Stories

Discover Greek poetry and fiction from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. You’ll consider historical, sociocultural, and wider literary developments of the period and how they illustrate attitudes to the ancient past. 

Ancient Drama

Discover ancient drama by examining their content, themes, and performance style and uncovering the context in which they were produced. 

Roman History: From Republic to Empire

Gain knowledge of the historical, political, social, and economic developments of the imperial era of Rome, using various sources to investigate the impact of the Roman world on the present day. 

Careers for Classicists and Ancient Historians

Set yourself targets in order to make impactful job applications following your graduation, relating your experience of exploring career paths to selected careers in the ancient world. 

Celts and Romans: Northern Europe and Britain

Explore the character of archaeological evidence concerning Roman presence in Northern Europe from 300 BC to AD 300, and its relation to the documentary evidence. You'll delve into the major social, cultural and economic changes of the region in this period.

Medieval Europe: Power, Religion and Death

Gain a comprehensive understanding of the contribution that archaeological evidence, approaches and interpretation have made to an understanding of Europe over the ‘Long Middle Ages’, c. AD 500-1600. You'll make thematic comparisons between different geographical, cultural and temporal contexts in Europe and familiarise yourself with key transformations and developments embraced by this period. You'll also gain a first-hand experience from a field trip to Winchester - one of the richest medieval urban landscapes in southern England.

Roman Satire

Explore humour and invective in the Roman world, considering what caused the indignation of Horace, Persius, and Juvenal and how they included mockery in their writings.

Museum Learning and Engagement

Critically examine the learning role of museums in society and discover resource design, evaluation, and visitor research. Talks from museum-based professionals and museum visits will allow you to contextualise and apply your learning. 

Curatorship and Collections Management

Explore the methods used by professionals to store, catalogue and research objects, and to communicate their meanings to the public. You’ll receive an induction to these methods and undertake assignments based on objects in the University’s collections. 

Optional Language or University Wide Modules

Study a module from outside your Department to enhance your understanding of history and culture. Alternatively, you can learn one of ten languages offered by the University at a level appropriate for you. 

These are the modules we typically offer at this level of study. If you have any questions about specific modules, please email the Archaeology Admissions Tutor at archaeology@reading.ac.uk.

Please note that the University cannot guarantee that all optional modules will be available to all students who may wish to take them.

You can also register your details with us to receive information about your course of interest and study and life at the University of Reading.

Compulsory modules

Dissertation in Archaeology

Plan, organise and carry out an independent archaeological research project. You’ll undertake primary research as you critically assess previous approaches to a research question and identify or design methods relevant to its solution.

OR

Dissertation in Classics

Investigate a topic within classics to form the basis of an extended piece of original research or an original artistic production. To prepare for the dissertation you’ll participate in workshops and submit an assessed proposal. 

OR

Independent Project in Classics

Conduct research, explication and documentation of a topic presented in a format different from the traditional dissertation. You’ll prepare for the project by participating in workshops and submitting an assessed proposal.  

Optional modules

Greek and Roman Painting

Investigate and critique Greek and Roman painting by exploring the styles and techniques used to decorate architecture and free-standing objects in the ancient world. 

From Classroom to Courtroom: Mastering the Art of Persuasion

Consider the relationship between theory of rhetoric and the practice of oratory in antiquity by examining the construction of ancient speeches and the skills required for composing and delivering them. 

'Race' and Ethnicity in the Ancient Greek and Roman Worlds

Challenging the notion that ‘race’ and racism are modern concepts, you’ll explore racial and ethnic otherness in Greek and Latin texts along with how classical texts continue to shape our thinking on these issues.  

The Anthropology of Heritage and Cultural Property

Explore how heritage is an important global industry for tourism and heritage site conservation. You’ll discover the historical development of concepts, politics, and legal claims on heritage and cultural property in the contemporary world.

Objects and Identities in the Roman Empire

Explore the relationships between the consumption of objects and the expression of individual and group identities in the Roman world. You’ll focus on issues such as ethnicity, regionality, and the use of objects to represent feminine and masculine.

Biological Anthropology

Discover key methods used by human bone specialists, starting with the identification of human remains. You’ll learn how to examine bones for disease and injury, along with methods for assigning biological sex, age-at-death, and stature to a skeleton.

Post-excavation: Assessment, Analysis and Publication in the Profession

Prepare for employment in professional archaeology by learning post-excavation techniques and legal and planning policy frameworks. You’ll analyse records of an excavation and create a dated stratigraphic sequence for a post-excavation site report.

Emergence of Civilisation in Mesopotamia

Deepen your knowledge of Mesopotamia from the 4th to the 2nd millennium BC. You’ll explore the origins of writing and socio-politics, the nature of power, city-states and empire, and human-environment inter-relationships, resources, trade, and exchange.

The First Europeans: Archaeology of the Lower Palaeolithic

Explore the earliest archaeological evidence in Europe covering hominin evolution, their technologies, diets, and survival strategies. You’ll also consider the dramatically changing climates, habitats, and landscapes of the Lower Palaeolithic world.

The Archaeology and Anthropology of Food 

Explore how food contributes to our understanding of all human populations as a biological necessity and social commodity. Themes such as feasting, cannibalism, gender, migration, and colonialism will be considered.

Greek Art and Drama

Explore the relationship between ancient visual arts, specifically vase painting, and drama. You will analyse and evaluate the various sources of information we have about Greek drama, the stories it portrayed, and how it was presented through literature, visual arts, and on stage.

Science and the Dead: Taphonomy and Chemistry in Human Remains

Explore the knowledge and skills required of archaeologists who specialise in human remains. You’ll learn how to use biomolecular methods to reconstruct the living from the dead and develop your understanding of taphonomy.

Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Britain

Explore anthropological and archaeological interpretation of neolithic and early bronze age Britain. Topics include farming, treatment of the dead, ritual practices, the nature of settlement, perceptions of the landscape, and the arrival of metal to the British Isles.

Archaeology of the Dark Ages

Explore the archaeology of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and British-speaking areas of England from the 5th to 10th centuries. You’ll examine interactions between them and the wider world, and their transformation by Christianisation and political centralisation.

Living in Medieval Towns

Follow the evolution of towns and cityscapes from post-Roman times to the emergence of medieval towns. You’ll discover the socioeconomic complexities of urban centres, effects of the Black Death, and complexities of modern urban archaeology.

Optional Language or University Wide Modules

Study a module from outside your department to enhance your understanding of history and culture. Alternatively, you can learn one of ten languages offered by the University at a level appropriate for you.

These are the modules we typically offer at this level of study. If you have any questions about specific modules, please email the Archaeology Admissions Tutor at archaeology@reading.ac.uk.

Please note that the University cannot guarantee that all optional modules will be available to all students who may wish to take them.

You can also register your details with us to receive information about your course of interest and study and life at the University of Reading.